there are legitimate uses of even odd "workflows" like switching door bell sound to flashing lightbulbs and there are ANALLY STUPID ideas like remotely access the front door lock of my house UNLESS I HAVE COMPLETE ASSURANCE THAT IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO BE HACKED...

AS OF NOW unless a COMPLETELY REDUNDANT SINGLE SIGN ON is implemented (like a secureID PLUS a SMS ) it is IMPOSSIBLE TO GUARANTEE THE COMPLETE UNBREAKABLENESS OF A IoT SYSTEM...!!!

WHEN it will be posible to GUARANTEE DOUBLE OR TRIPLE REDUNDANCY for E2E SAFETY, NON REPUDIATION, ECC.PLAYING WIN THESE THINGS IS LIKE FLYING A JUMBO PLANE WITHOUT ANY REDUNDANT COMPUTER, FUEL LINE OR SIMILAR...AND SHOLD BE LABELLED...

"THIS FLIGHT IS A BEST EFFORT... IF YOU CRASH AND BURN ALIVE IT WOULD BE BY YOUR OWN FREE WILL..."

@GSKrasle, you raise good points. In fact, not blowing the breaker was one of the scenarios Rick Doherty, research directo of Envisineering, mentioned. I love your idea about my washing machine and dish washer go into a quiet mode when I am doing a phone interview at home!

And coordination.
Most folks here seem to be assuming that the smart appliances would be integrated with others in a facility with appropriate infrastructure. In short, new construction.
But in my case, I have old obsolete infrastructure, and it would convenience me if the microwave, toaster, refrigerator,dishwasher and lights could collaborate and avoid blowing the breaker every few days. Yes, I need to re-wire the kitchen, but that may not be as cost-effective as having the appliances negotiate a strategy so that I can have my toast and porrige without having to go out and push the breaker!
I think this would qualify as one of the "unforeseeable" IOT applications, but it is not an insignificant one! If devices on a branch circuit or a whole house were able to negotiate sharing of the capacity, loads could be leveled and probably lots of energy saved, just as is anticipated for smart grid technology.
And as an aside, the laundry machine and dishwasher could maybe pause their noise while I'm on the phone or watching a movie?

If that ever happened I would walk into the shop with my phone off, or choose a different store.

Currently all of the bigger stores have rolled out self checkouts, and I refuse to use them even if it means a long wait. The only exception I make is if a store staff member does it for me. I just act dumb. I refuse to participate in the dismantling of what is traditionally the entry into the work place of countless teens.

Etmax said: "Somebody tried to patent the plot to a movie a few years back... Le Lift sounds like a good reason why it shouldn't be possible :-)"

Just as there are a lot of Things which, though technologically possible, shouldn't be done because our modern-day drive toward the rampant commercial exploitation of ideas will likely or inevitably render them... "utterly ludicrous".

So, then... imagine that you are at a shopping-mall for the sole purpose of buying some replacement light-bulbs ( "smart" LED-bulbs, of course! ) for your "smart-home" which is still unable to go out and do it's own shopping ( but which is banking on Amazon's Smart-Drone delivery system to bypass this situtaion! ).

You go through the door, or get on the elevator ( or escalator ), all of which immediately detect your presence via your smart-phone. The elevator closes the doors, looks up the records of all your buying habits ( among other things )... AND THEN... the "Sales-Pitch" subroutines kick in! Trapped in a small enclosed space, you must now listen to an array of personally-directed options... and what was once a simple task now becomes a complex array of choices that make you feel personally compelled to decide and act upon.

This may be an ad-man's or a salesman's dream-come-true!... but, for me, it's a nightmare scenario.

Adams, among others, was well ahead of his time in foreseeing this, and so I can only say (... jokingly, of course... and I quote, paraphrasing in my best cockney accent ):

kfield said: "Sounds a lot like the plot of "Le Lift," a Dutch movie I rented a few years back about a smart elevator."

Which, of course, harkens back to Douglas Adams who, in the second-half of the original "The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy" radio-series ( circa 1978 ), provides a subplot-line in which Zaphod Beeblebrox is at the central-offices of MegaDodo Publications. He urgently has to take the elevator to go upstairs in order to find someone, who he's never met before, for reasons he's consciously totally unaware of.

He ends up having to have a philosophical discussion with the "Intelligent" Elevator, instead:

Elevator: " I GO UP, AND I GO DOWN."

Zaphod: "I want to go up."

Elevator: "DOWN IS VERY NICE!"

Zaphod: "Yeah? Up! Please."

Elevator: "HAVE YOU STOPPED TO CONSIDER ALL OF THE POSSIBILITIES THAT 'DOWN' MIGHT HAVE TO OFFER?"

... and so on.

Of course, the segment concludes by telling of a wily inventor who thereafter re-discovers and obtains a patent for an amazing device known as a "staircase".